Scotland names winning offshore wind bids to ‘green’ oil and gas fields

Seabed landlord Crown Estate Scotland will now offer exclusivity agreements for areas that could host 5.5GW of offshore wind farms before formally awarding sites.

Irish developers Simply Blue Group, renewables developer Cerulean Winds and floating specialist Flotation Energy were among the companies successful in the innovation and targeted oil and gas (Intog) leasing round.

The ‘tog’ part of Intog is designed to reduce the carbon emissions from oil and gas operations in the North Sea by supplying them with electricity produced by offshore wind farms. 

Crown Estate Scotland also awarded bids for “innovative” smaller projects with a maximum capacity of 100MW in a bid to demonstrate technological innovations in offshore wind.

It explained that the 13 successful bids care for areas that could support nearly 5GW of offshore wind to supply power to oil and gas projects and 499MW of offshore wind to demonstrate innovations. It had received 19 bids in the round.

The bids could eventually be worth about £262 million (€296 million) in applicant fees once the plans and agreements are finalised, Crown Estate Scotland believes.

Many of the larger scale successful bids proposed offshore wind to supply oil and gas fields with electricity, such as those from Cerulean Winds, which won rights worth over £137 million spread across three separate proposals — over half the value of all the successful bids combined. 

Dan Jackson, the company’s founding director, said he was “thrilled” to secure rights for projects he claimed would remove “tens of millions of tonnes of CO2” from oil and gas production.  

Intog was designed in response to the UK government’s push to encourage oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea to transition their operations towards being powered by renewable energy. 

The area of seabed covered by the new innovation projects is just over 139km², while the oil and gas-linked wind projects cover around 1,534km², according to Crown Estate Scotland. 

The successful bids are:

Lead applicant	Option fees (£)	Technological innovation or targeted oil and gas	Estimated capacity (MW)
Simply Blue Energy	9,972,000	Technological innovation	100
BlueFloat Energy/Renantis Partnership	7,107,900	Technological innovation	99.45
BlueFloat Energy/Renantis Partnership	5,401,360	Technological innovation	99.45
BP Alternative Energy Investments	1,670,917	Technological innovation	50
ESB Asset Development UK	3,137,000	Technological innovation	100
Flotation Energy	54,893,102	Targeted oil and gas	560
Flotation Energy	40,987,979	Targeted oil and gas	1350
Cerulean Winds	67,200,066	Targeted oil and gas	1008
Cerulean Winds	35,200,098	Targeted oil and gas	1008
Cerulean Winds	35,200,098	Targeted oil and gas	1008
TotalEnergies	200,000	Targeted oil and gas	3
Harbour Energy	405,000	Targeted oil and gas	15
Harbour Energy	405,000	Targeted oil and gas	15